Ideology: Tax dollars at work in Virgina

February 27, 2010|By Tamara Dietrich

The Bible got a good thumping in Richmond recently when a state delegate and his pastor posse announced a petition to strip Planned Parenthood of state funding, invoking God and fact-free propaganda worthy of Goebbels.

They called the group "unethical, immoral and racist." Claimed it promotes reckless sex, resulting in more venereal diseases. That it sets up shop in minority communities so it can best engage in "racial genocide."

Del. Robert Marshall, Republican from Prince William County and chief thumper, even claimed that aborting "firstborns" increases the risk of handicapped babies later, because "nature takes it vengeance."

God does, too, apparently — Marshall warned that some Christians believe a "special punishment" awaits those who forsake the firstborn.

Our own Del. Brenda Pogge, R- James City County, chimed in. Taxpayers would be outraged, she said, if they knew their money was going to Planned Parenthood.

"The reason it's gone on for so long," Pogge said, "is that most people don't have a clue what's being paid for by taxpayer dollars."

Well, Pogge and Marshall — when it comes to clueless, get in line.

What are taxpayers getting for the roughly $63,000 that Planned Parenthood received from the state the last fiscal year? A whole lot of prenatal care, Pap tests, breast exams, birth control education and services and HIV prevention.

And abortions?

Marshall and the pastors didn't offer any specifics Feb. 18 when they unleashed their petition and pulled from thin air the amount — $500,000 — they thought the state was funding the group.

Later, state agencies clued them in.

The Board of Health must, by law, fund abortions in cases of rape, incest or incapacitating physical or mental deformity of the fetus. According to news reports, it funded 18 of them in the past year and a half at a cost of some $5,700.

If the mother's life or health is at risk, Virginia Medicaid reimburses the cost of abortion. It funded 439 between 2006 and 2008, but didn't say how much it cost.

It also isn't clear if Planned Parenthood performed any or all or none of those.

Does the group provide abortion services? Of course. But it's a small portion of all it provides.

"We're often accused of being an abortion factory," Paul Jersild, board member of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia, told me last week. "It's so wide of the mark. They do counseling and educational work. That's in addition to the more strictly medical work that they do and the services that they provide, usually to young women who are quite vulnerable."

Gloria Smith, director of the Minority Health Coalition in Hampton Roads, agrees. Planned Parenthood is a coalition partner and participates in its health fairs and other initiatives promoting pregnancy prevention.

Both are dismayed at the implication they're allied with a godless, racist group: Jersild is a retired pastor and former teacher at a Christian seminary, and Smith is black, a pastor's wife, grandmother of 11.

If Marshall, Pogge, et al., genuinely cared about reducing abortion rates, they'd be pushing to increase state funds to groups like Planned Parenthood.

So would our new governor, Bob McDonnell. But his spokeswoman has said he not only supports Marshall's nonsense, but plans to sign the petition, right along with evangelicals Pat Robertson and Jonathan Falwell.